Choosing a low-cost guitar to gig with?

[gr81dorn]

My only real gig these days is church. We have a fabulous modern facility with a top shelf sound system. In the past year or so, I've played guitars ranging from $5000 all the way down to a few hundred bucks and while the high end stuff is clearly better, the end product of a decent sounding guitar with a decent pickup through a fabulous sound system is pretty goshdarn great and definitely making me think I don't have any good reason to bring out the big guns...or even own them in the first place lol.

I am leaning toward just dialing in one of my cheaper guitars as my main gigger. I've got a great cheap Eastman OM, for example, that plays like butter, sounds awesome, covers a lot of ground from big strummer to delicate finger styler and with the right pickup system will serve me really well - upside being if it gets a ding, or the winter in the tundra where I live gets to it in transit, or someone steals it (from church?) ... oh well. Plays great and will sound great and that's all that really matters.

I'm not averted to using expensive stuff..I've done it plenty. I am not even averted to using guitars that I don't personally like the sound of or connect well with to do the job - I played a great Taylor this weekend that was just fine and plug and played perfectly, but just not my style - but I am really impressed with how great some inexpensive things are these days and I like trying different pickups, so its kind fun to tinker, but I'd rather tinker with a cheaper instrument.

Anyone else gone or headed down such a road?

As an avid concert-goer in days of yore, I have seen it all and I sometimes see a player with a high end guitar and think "that sounds terrible...gotta be the house system" and sometimes I see someone with a cheap piece of crap and I'm like "wow..that sounds incredible...gotta be the house system". Whether it is or isn't, I can confidently say that in my best guitars never sound like themselves when amplified cuz that's never really gonna happen, so, I might as well find one that plays great and set it up for its best chance at success plugged in and leave my others to make me feel good alone in my basement ;-)

[pickinray]

If I was looking for a guitar to play plugged in, I'd start with Takamine.

[Bob from Brooklyn]

Originally Posted by pickinray

If I was looking for a guitar to play plugged in, I'd start with Takamine.

That's what The Eagles and Springsteen use and they can afford whatever they want.

[Long Road Home]

Originally Posted by gr81dorn

I am leaning toward just dialing in one of my cheaper guitars as my main gigger. I've got a great cheap Eastman OM, for example, that plays like butter, sounds awesome, covers a lot of ground from big strummer to delicate finger styler and with the right pickup system will serve me really well - upside being if it gets a ding, or the winter in the tundra where I live gets to it in transit, or someone steals it (from church?) ... oh well. Plays great and will sound great and that's all that really matters.

My gigging guitar was, and will once again, be an Eastman E6OM-LTD (it's coming back home after a 2 year hiatus) with a BGM Elevation SBT pickup (replaced the LR Baggs Element) for many of the reasons that you talk about, and I'll add tight stages with too many people and mic stands and other things to bang into.

Sadly, my only real gigs these days are in my dreams. I can't see that changing for a while, especially with cold weather setting in and outdoor gigs no longer feasible in the Northeast.

[L20A]

I was going to suggest that you get an Eastman and install a K and K pickup.
You already have the guitar.

[Skarsaune]

Last poster has it exactly right.
Put a K&K in the Eastman you already have and like.

I put one in my Voyage Air, for serious traveling, and one in my first personal build, for local gigs. Playing the one I built for a holiday market gig tomorrow.

I go straight into a Hartke 2 channel amp that has some on board effects. Lots of folks use a DI. You can definitely get a good sound out of them. Plus they’re about $100 and easy to put in.

[SalFromChatham]

My two best gigging guitars have been a Martin D15 with a Baggs M1 Passive and A Takamine P3NC.

Right before covid shut things down for my gigging, I got a Gibson J45 Studio... but they are not cheap exactly. Maybe look at one of the G45s?

Pick one with a Baggs UST instead of the Fishman Sonitone though.

[soma5]

I feel that you need to practice with the guitar you perform with. To me, that means that the guitar you choose as a gigging guitar is good enough that you are not averse to playing it most of the time. In fact I feel that my first mistake when starting to gig was to get a "gigging guitar" that wasn't one I really wanted to play.

If you love your Eastman, then you will play it when you aren't gigging and you will be that much better a performer as a result.

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by gr81dorn

... I can confidently say that my best guitars never sound like themselves when amplified cuz that's never really gonna happen, so, I might as well find one that plays great and set it up for its best chance at success plugged in and leave my others to make me feel good alone in my basement...

Best-sounding acoustic-electric rig you'll ever find IME, around $500 complete if you shop around:

1. First-generation Ovation USA deep-body/non-cutaway acoustic-electric: can be set up to play like an electric with no loss of acoustic tone/volume; single volume control; tough as nails;
2. Mid-80's Peavey Bandit 65 (or Special 130) with defeatable Saturation control in lead channel: natural rolloff over ~5kHz tames treble edginess and piezo UST "quack" (especially with Scorpion speaker); lead channel offers second clean fingerstyle/lead option with Saturation turned to 0; tons of volume/headroom when plugged into Low Gain input; built like tanks and ultra-low maintenance;

This was my performing rig through the late-90's, long after Ovations had gone out of style - sounds exactly like a loud acoustic guitar (not "acoustic-electric"), and I've yet to find anything at a reasonable price that sounds better in a live performing situation...

[Br1ck]

Originally Posted by Brooklyn Bob

That's what The Eagles and Springsteen use and they can afford whatever they want.

They realize they are good enough and Takamine is willing to throw money at them. Plain and simple.

One year The Who went on tour and the Takamine rep went to dealers asking them if they wanted ten or twenty black guitars. Buy the third concert in the US there were none left.

I'd do the same thing if I could.

[chrislongAgain]

https://www.prsguitars.com/index.php...l/se_p20e_2020
i'd check these out, myself.
click on VIDEOS, near the bottom, and then watch the davy knowles video.
enjoy!